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Seldom has the road to fame and fortune been so well paved as it is for those businesses that will drive the VR revolution. The signs are all there. The direction is clear. A wealth of virtual reality induced business opportunities lie just ahead,

And there really are few limits. From gaming to healthcare to business meetings and beyond, virtual reality stands poised to touch every area of our lives. Let us take a look at 5 sectors that could really use VR to launch themselves into greatness.

1. Education

It doesn’t take a futurist to understand how virtual reality could transform education. From K-12 to university level and right on to continued education, there is no sector of education that cannot benefit from VR technology.

A virtual reality classroom would allow kids to fly through space to witness the formation of stars, shrink down to inspect the workings of the human body up close, and do everything in between. These are just two examples of what virtual reality in the classroom can do. Let’s be real. Learning about the Colosseum virtually, like Unimersiv has done beautifully, is likely to make more of an impression on any teenager.

The reason educational institutions will ultimately adopt VR solutions is because they will improve learning. Evidence suggests that VR-aided education increases attention by 92% and test scores by 35%. This translates into a higher quality education for students and a higher attraction rate for schools.

2. Events

Virtual reality is writing its own ticket as the new way to enjoy events. Sports, musical performances, news events, and even theater productions are being added to the list of content now available through streaming VR. Live or recorded it does not matter.

The market is diverse and any event can be streamed in VR. Businesses can monetize this through online ticket sales, sponsorships, advertising or brand building. The VR experience will bring event goers around the world without the need to leave their homes.

Those days and hours spent being carted around by your realtor could be far more focused and productive if you could walk through a property before an actual site visit.Yes, you have probably seen 360 Virtual Tours on many realtor sites, however, those images are static pictures. Imagine how much more compelling the experience would be if it felt like you were actually walking through the property?

Imagine if there was a way to walk through the property without ever leaving your desk, just think of all the great things you might accomplish with all that extra time. For the realtor, it increases the possibility of a sale, being able to show the site to more people in more places, and to allow them to focus on more serious buyers.

The buyer is happy, the seller is happy, the realtor is very happy. Everybody wins!

Healthcare professionals require a vast amount of professional experience and skill, especially if they are in surgical or trauma-related sectors.

In most cases, acquiring real world experience on-the-job simply isn’t feasible, as every decision could mean the difference between life and death. With virtual reality, medical professionals are able to explore every procedure and learn how to care for patients without any risk involved. They can also participate in realistic tutorials that allow them to interact with the objects.

In essence, Virtual Reality training provides healthcare professionals with the hands-on online training they need to provide the best quality of care for their patients. This also translates into lower liability insurance costs and fewer cases of malpractice and negligence.

And this is only on the training side of things, the patient side of VR can even go well beyond what Google tried to do with Google Glass several years ago.

5. Hospitality / Tourism

How many of us have used Google Earth and/or Google Maps to explore foreign destinations? Pretty cool, huh? Enter Virtual Reality. VR takes exploration to a whole new immersive level by allowing us to walk around in faraway destinations.

Travel agents can take a tour of accommodations to determine if they are recommendation-worthy, or go on an hour-long cruise around the Mediterranean before they book the real thing for their clients. Or families can check out an area’s tourist attractions before they decide where they want to go.

Keep in mind that these are just a few industries that can benefit from Virtual Reality training. Because of its versatility, VR technology can be used in (wait for it…) virtually every niche. If you have a question about virtual reality, reach out!

Her name means “light” and that is what she is… high energy, bright and fast. And yes… she does run regularly. While we’re not sure what she is running from (perhaps her two young kids) we know she’s covered a ton of ground. She was the Executive Producer for an award winning and number one rated morning show in Tampa for years. And now, she uses her unique blend of organization, storytelling and curiosity to help Mad Bear clients find their stories. Think of her as an architect, a story architect.

The future holds many unknowns. But the world of video is a different story. Gather around as we take a look into our Mad Bear Crystal Ball – which no surprise resembles our new Nokia OZO Virtual Reality camera. Take a minute or two to read Mad Bear’s predictions for the world of video in 2017.

360 Video/Virtual Reality will be THE dominant buzz technology of the Year.

3D video, mobile video and even drones have had their time in the “buzz light,” but for 2017 it will be all about 360 Video/VR.

Predictive statistics are already suggesting this will be the case. Here are just some of the resources pointing in that direction:

▪Revenues from virtual reality products (both hardware and software) are projected to increase from 90 million dollars in 2014 to 5.2 billion dollars in 2018. (Read the full Statista report here)

▪Consumer spending on VR headsets will go from 1.6 billion dollars in 2016 to 7.9 billion dollars by 2020 (CNBC)

▪Dip into CES 2017 for a sense of how dominant VR has become already in the shaping of what the word “immersive” means.(Forbes)

2. Sorry Snapchat. Instagram It Is.

#sorrysnapchat

Instagram will continue to use “video stories” to take marketshare from Snapchat. The meteoric millennial monetization (yes… a three part alliteration) rise of Snapchat has come to an end, as many marketers will move away to Facebook owned Instagram (3 more “m’s”… I’m on fire). There was some writing on the wall several months ago when Instagram copied Snapchat and unveiled stories (here is one article from AdWeek) but Instagram isn’t done yet. Look for further integration of video in their platform and look for more ways for businesses to utilize the platform to target ads (a la Facebook). There might even be some expiring video content and/or filters added. While I love your new Spectacles Snapchat. It just won’t be enough.

3. Interactive Video Content Will Move from “Maybe” to “Must Have”

Clickable, shareable, trackable …. it is so nice marketers are ABLE to do these things without ever having to leave a video link. As viewers decreasingly jump between platforms (i.e. “If the content originates on Facebook please don’t send me to a landing page.”), interactive content become the key to keeping people engaged. Interactive in these terms can mean more social media features or even a deeper use of 360 video (see the #1 prediction above).

Here is a good overview article on interactive video from the co-founder of an interactive video company Rapt Media.

So there you have it… three predictions for 2017 … in a way all three say the same thing. Video will move deeper in the direction of consumer initiated engagement. In other words, the video creator will no longer fully control what people experience and how they experience it. Now, the creator is empowered to tell the story so that the viewer can control the experience. So give your viewer the keys, invite them into the driver seat and see where they go. If the ride is good enough, they will come back for more.

About the Author: Glenn Zimmerman

Glenn has what is best described as “Superhero Syndrome.”
His affliction began as a child and has progressed with age.
He got into extreme skiing and extreme sports before they were a thing because every superhero should try flying at least once.

While at Boston University, it was his desire to save the day that brought him to Post- Soviet Russia where he explored the emerging homeless population.

His Syndrome brought him to journalism school at Syracuse University to get his MS in Mass Communications.

He later became an award winning reporter with the number one station in Detroit (WXYZ-TV) and with NBC’s flagship station in New York (WNBC- TV). And, it was the reason he formed the video agency Mad Bear Productions.

With Mad Bear, he harnesses the power of story to help business, non-profits and events engage with their target audience. Video is his tool and he wields it mightily.

Glenn is a sought after speaker on video engagement and mass media. It is all part of his quest to help save the day, one story at a time.